In the book, "Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne has an affair and bears a child. This shocked the Puritan community deeply and she was forced to live alone with her child, Pearl, in the forest. After seven long years, she is incorporating herself back into the community due to her superb sewing skills. Although she is somewhat accepted into the community again, she cannot stop her passionate feelings for her lover, the Minister Dimmesdale. Her individual beliefs conflict with the society of the Puritan community, and demonstrate the idea that individual belief should not be overruled by society because society deems it wrong. These beliefs are so strong that she is willing to commit suicide rather than have society determine who she is.…
The protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, struggles with the perceptions placed upon her by the society of Boston. Although Hester initially rebels openly, she is not egotistical like Abigail and she eventually abandons overt rebellion for peace of mind and understanding of the self. While it is true that her affair with another man constitutes a sin, she remains a woman of virtue. In the puritan society, relationships are not supposed to be broken unless by divorce, even if the husband is at the bottom of the sea where Hester’s husband is believed to be. Hester breaks away from her husband whom she did not love and falls in love with the reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale. She dares to pursue her freedom of being in love. In the article,…
Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story about Hester Prynne, her drastic act of sin, and her punishment for that act. Hester, a married woman, committed adultery, and borne a child from her affair. Her husband had sent her ahead of him to America and had never arrived in Boston. It was believed that he was lost at sea. As punishment, Hester has to wear a flashy, scarlet and gold stitched “A” embroidered on her chest for as long as she lives. From what I have read, Hester is leaving from her stay at prison, her child clutched tightly to her breasts, as she moves through the crowd to receive her punishment. Other women scorn her, and insult her openly as if she weren’t in their presence. There in the crowd of people, she notices her…
The Scarlet Letter is one of the first novels ever written to feature a strong female character as the lead role. Hester Prynne is punished for committing adultery against her ex husband Roger Dimmesdale. She is to be punished for seven, horrific, lonely years of her and her daughter, Pearl, lives. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is punished in three different ways.…
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne one of the main characters in Hester Prynne. She is a convicted adulterer, and the story follows her starting in 1642 in a Puritan town. She and her illegitimate daughter, Pearl, along with her lover, Dimmesdale, and husband, Chillingworth, are the main focus of this dramatic tale. Through her actions and words, Pearl is a “device” to move the consciences of her parents to end their sinful situation. Pearl’s physical obsession with the scarlet A torments her mother, at one point making her physically put it back on, all while forcing her to confront her sins. Pearl also pressures Dimmesdale into acknowledging her as his daughter, and admitting his sins. Pearl is an important aspect of this tragic…
How could breaking your promise with your husband, being shunned by society, and disobeying a commandment given by God possibly be good? In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne the book's main character, was forced to wear a scarlet stitched letter “A” on her chest after she had committed adultery. Although Hester was shamed and shunned by society she was lucky by Puritan standards to not be physically punished or even killed (“Puritan” US). Many adulterers in the Massachusetts Bay Company were subjected to public whippings and public executions (“Puritan” US). Hester’s sinful act was obviously very selfish and evil, Hester’s confession and punishment, which may seem extremely harsh in today's world, changed her for…
Of all the characters in The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, the protagonist, is the strongest and most courageous. But, that is not to say that she is unsusceptible to change. Over the course of the novel, Hester remains unchanged in some areas, such as strength and honesty, but her beauty and social status vary greatly.…
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. After his graduation from Bowdoin College in Maine, he quickly became a well-known author of literary tales concerning early American life. Between 1825 and 1850, he developed his talent by writing short fiction, and he gained international fame for his fictional novel The Scarlet Letter in 1850 (Clendenning 118). Rufus Wilmot Griswold stated,<br><br>The frivolous costume and brisk action of the story of fashionable life are easily depicted by the practised sketcher, but a work like "The Scarlet Letter" comes slowly upon the canvas, where passions are commingled and overlaid with the masterly elaboration with which the grandest effects are produced in pictural composition and coloring. (Griswold 352)<br><br>Throughout the novel, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.<br><br>In the first Chapter of The Scarlet Letter, "The Prison-Door", the reader is immediately introduced to the people of Puritan Boston. Hawthorne begins to develop the character of the common people in order to build the mood of the story. The first sentence begins, "A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes" (Hawthorne 45). Hawthorne 's use of vivid visual images and his Aaccumulation of emotionally weighted details" (Baym xii) creates sympathy for the not yet introduced character, Hester Prynne, and creates an immediate understanding of the harshness of the Puritanic code in the people. The images created give the freedom to imagine whatever entails sadness and morbidity of character for the reader; Hawthorne does not, however, allow the reader to imagine lenient or cheerful people.<br><br>Nathaniel Hawthorne 's eloquent contrast of the jail and its captive, Hester Prynne, also…
In The Scarlet Letter, the many townsfolk make assumptions about Hester Prynne. They assume that Hester Prynne is not fit to raise her daughter, Pearl, the right way. They make these assumptions against Hester because she wears a scarlet letter upon her bosom, which stands for adulterer. For example, in chapter eight Governor Bellingham brings up the people’s concerns about Hester raising a child. He says, “The point hath been much question concerning thee, of late. The point hath been weightily discussed, whether we, that are of authority and influence, do well discharge our consciences by trusting an immortal soul, such as there is in yonder child, to the guidance of one who hath stumbled and fallen, amid the pitfalls of this world” (Hawthorne, 99). This topic relates to me because people have made many…
To demonstrate the townspeople suffer and respond to Hester’s sin. In fact, the townspeople of Boston committed sin as a result of Hester’s sin when they would she is treated so poorly that often preachers will stop in the street and start to deliver a lecture as she walks by. The motivation for the townspeople is that if Hester sinned then they should be able to sin also. The good townspeople are not acting in a Christian-like manner. For instance, they threaten to take her baby away from her they throw rocks at her in town, they say ugly rude things to her ,they humiliate and try to tear her down. By all means, one person in particular who does these awful things would be Governor Bellingham. To sum up, the whole townspeople treat her wrong…
Walking around and feeling like everyone cannot take their eyes off of you. Feeling like you are an outcast everywhere you go. These are all things that Hester Prynne felt in the novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. You would think that Hester might be over reacting by feeling like an outsider, and acting like a loner. However, after experiencing the feeling of wearing a letter around for a day, I could vouch for Hester. I didn’t even have to keep it on for life, just a day, and the eyes were beginning to get to me. This is how my experiences relate to those of Hester.…
In the Novel, “The Scarlet Letter”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is a woman who was punished for committing adultery. The Novel mostly focuses on how she lived and how her life was affected and changed after spending time in prison for her sin. It also focuses on her daughter, Pearl and the man she committed her sin with, Dimmesdale, and how their lives were affected by their sin. This essay will focus on Hester Prynne and her main problem and its resolution. Also how she grows and changes throughout the Novel. Lastly, this essay will cover whether or not the reader can really empathize with Hester.…
In the novel “The Scarlet Letter”,by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a Woman named Hester Prynne who was in jail for adultery and as punishment she must wear a scarlet letter (A) on her breast wherever she goes to signify that she has committed adultery and that it is her punishment by the court,she also deal with public shaming as a result of what she has done. But before all of these shame and having to wear the letter She Was given a choice, life or death she chose life because her acts had brought into this world a baby or her daughter with she named Pearl. She Describes her daughter as not only a gift from god, but also a punishment from him as well. Many people say that her daughter (Pearl) was Satan’s gift to Hester and that she is a sin.…
Needs/Wants; Hester wants to be with Dimmansdale and needs to keep to villagers from finding that Chillingworth is her real husband…
Thesis: The three scaffolding scenes are all important because they show how the scaffold is represented as a place where people are seen to be guilty of a crime or sin, and also how it contradicts the thought of having here society’s reverend in a high place as well.…